An Introduction To Catastrophe Theory And Immanuel Velikovsky

Written by John O'Sullivan on May 1, 2023. Posted in Current News, Videos

Martin Sieff is a veteran international journalist and prominent intellectual with three Pulitzer Prize nominations.

Speaking with Principia Scientific International CEO, John O’Sullivan, Sieff explains why he is a passionate supporter of the work of Russian scientist, Immanuel Velikovsky.

Velikovsky is most distinguished for his advocacy of catastrophism, contrary to consensus science’s main themes, which supported the notion of slow and steady evolution.

Among the key differences between catastrophism and uniformitarianism is that uniformitarianism observes the existence of vast timelines, whereas catastrophism does not.

Today most geologists combine catastrophism and uniformitarianism standpoints, taking the view that Earth’s history is a slow, gradual story punctuated by occasional natural catastrophic events that have affected Earth and its inhabitants.

Velikovsky’s books on the subject sold widely in the 1950s but pushback among mainstream academics led to him being dismissed as a serious theoretician. However, modern discoveries in space scientists have stirred a new interest in his prescient ideas.

His conversations with Albert Einstein suggested both were open to electrical dominance in nature. See Before the Day Breaks, the story of Velikovsky’s discussions with Einstein on the role of electromagnetism in the universe.

Velikovsky’s detailed research of historical references uncovered that catastrophes that occurred within the memory of humankind are recorded in the myths, legends, and written history of all ancient cultures and civilizations.

Velikovsky pointed to alleged concordances in the accounts of many cultures and proposed that they referred to the same real events.

Historians document flood mythology recorded in the Hebrew Bible, the Greek legend of Deucalion, and the Manu legend of India. Velikovsky put forward the psychoanalytic idea of “Cultural Amnesia” as a mechanism whereby these literal records came to be regarded as mere myths and legends.

We know that Nikola Tesla posited the idea that electricity and energy were responsible for almost all cosmic phenomena. Tesla saw energy and electricity as an “incompressible fluid” of constant quantity that could neither be destroyed nor created.

About Martin Sieff: Martin is a veteran international journalist and prominent intellectual with three Pulitzer Prize nominations. In a long and illustrious career, he has included work as Chief Foreign Correspondent for The Washington Times, and chief news analyst for United Press International. He is an expert on Asian security affairs and the Middle East and reported on National Public Radio, the Fox News Channel, and C-SPAN. His work has been featured in too many prestigious publications to list them all here.

Martin is the author of “The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Middle East” (Regnery, 2008), “Shifting Superpowers: The U.S.-China-India Relationship in the 21st Century” (Cato, 2009), and “Cycles of Change: The Three Great Cycles of U.S. Political History” and “Gathering Storm”.

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